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2016 Republican Primary Tag

Welcome to our live Republican debate coverage. Tonight's debate will air on CBS, live from the Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina. The debate begins at 9:00 PM ET. Obviously, the death of Justice Antonin Scalia sets a somber mood for the night. DEBATE OVER. Aleister nailed it: https://twitter.com/AmericanGlob/status/698710383738097664 https://twitter.com/VeraMBergen/status/698706876503080961

In this edition of Today in Political Attack Ads, "Hillary Clinton" goes gangster on a printer, the PAC wars heat up to melt a life-sized Donald Trump, and the Club for Growth doesn't mess around.

It feels good to be a Clinton

Attackee: Hillary Clinton Attacker: Ted Cruz A spoof from a relatively famous scene in the movie Office Space, Hillary and gang whoop up on a server. Pls print.

We're pleased to present what will be a reoccurring election feature here at Legal Insurrection -- Today in Political Attack Ads. As long as the mud is flying, you'll find it here. Political attack ads are as old and colorful as America. To our cultural credit, negative ads are far less personal these days. "John Adams is a hideous hermaphroditicly character with neither the force or firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman," claimed Thomas Jefferson (one of my personal favorites). "Do you want to see your dwelling in flames?! Female chastity violated?! Children writhing on a pike!! Well that's what will happen if you vote for Thomas Jefferson!" warned John Adams. Back in 2010, Reason put together a video chronicling some of the best campaign rhetoric from the election of 1800.

An ad put out by the Ted Cruz campaign attacking Donald Trump is brilliant. The production quality is high, it's funny, and it goes to a core public perception of Trump as a candidate -- that he is not to be treated as a serious person. Trump has the highest national negatives of all candidates of either party, and does poorly in head-to-head matches not only with Ted Cruz but also with Hillary and Bernie. The ad plays on this perception by having children with a Trump Action Figure doll laugh as they recite Trumps policy positions and friendliness with people like Nancy Pelosi. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvPh9I_jwBo The end, in which the children smash a house while shouting 'eminent domain' is quite effective. Core Trump supporters are not the target of the ad. They will not be shaken.

Numerous reports indicate Chris Christie is suspending his campaign, with a formal announcement later today). https://twitter.com/ABC/status/697444192193265664 Details to follow.

Welcome to our New Hampshire primary liveblog. We'll be updating periodically, so be sure to refresh your browser for the latest news. If you're just joining us, check out our previous open thread for the shenanigans you may have missed today. Trump and Sanders quickly declared winners. WAJ very quick assessment:
Get ready for Team Hillary to play the race card on Bernie -- exploiting the tensions between white liberals and Black Lives Matter. She will pander like she's never pandered before. On the Republican side, too many survived for any one of them to mount an immediate challege to Trump. Chris Christie committed murder-suicide in taking down Rubio at the last debate without helping himself. Jeb will keep going because he's so emotionally invested in it - pride comes before a fall. Politico obtained Jeb's post-NH strategy memo - Bush plans scorched-earth attack on Kasich, Rubio. Kasich will be a one-hit wonder. Cruz is the most viable challenger to Trump.
As of just after midnight and 80% reporting, here is the count:

Welcome to our New Hampshire Primary open thread! Thanks for stopping by. We'll be updating with well, updates, headlines and other sundry news, but most importantly -- things that make me laugh. Be sure to refresh your browser tab frequently for the latest. I'll be manning the thread all evening. Have questions? Put them in the comment section and I'll do my best to answer. Polls close at 7:00 PM ET in most of the state. But in 20 some-odd communities, polls will close at 8:00 PM ET. We'll cover reaction and results as they trickle in, but in a separate post.

FLASH POLL: Which Republican is MOST LIKELY to DROP OUT after New Hampshire?

Despite studies that clearly demonstrate that women underperform and cause their entire unit to underperform in combat training, the left still seems enamored of the idea that women should be forced upon the military in these combat positions.  Indeed, now all branches of the military, including special ops, are required to accept women. The next obvious step is selective service.  If men are required by federal law to register for selective service at age eighteen, why not all women?  This is going to be a problem for the femisogynist left who really only wanted that whole equality thing to go so far.  Now, they are faced with the logical consequences of their politically correct nonsense. Army and Marine Corps chiefs have already stated that it's time to register women for selective service, so this opens a new can of worms for the progressive left.  While I couldn't find push back from progressives yet, it will come. Now, though, they are focusing on Ted Cruz who rightly argues that it is "nuts" to draft women into the military because this now includes combat positions. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Ted Cruz said Sunday a proposal to include women in the Selective Service registration was a product of out of control political correctness and warned against putting a woman soldier near a dangerous “psychopath” in a combat situation.

During Saturday night's NH GOP debate, Marco Rubio was asked how he planned to tackle social issues with millennial voters, in particular issues of life and marriage. Rubio discussed abortion as a two-fold issue -- one dealing with women's rights and the other with the right to life. "I've chosen to err on the side of life," he said. Hillary Clinton's stance on abortion was pulled into his answer as Rubio called her views "extreme."

It's pretty clear what the most talked-about segment of the GOP New Hampshire debate was. When Chris Christie treated Marco Rubio like an accused murderer on the witness stand, alternatively badgering and mocking the witness's alibi for where he was the night of the crime. The witness, though, would not be shaken from his story. It's his story, and he's sticking to it. Needless to say, Chris Christie is trying to portray this as a game changer in the trial known as the Republican primaries:

Welcome to our live debate coverage. The debate begins at 8:00 PM ET on ABC from St. Anselm's College Institute of Politics, Manchester, New Hampshire. You can watch the live stream here. Who's participating in the debate? Everyone but Jim Gilmore and Carly Fiorina. Your comprehensive list here:
  • Jeb Bush
  • Ben Carson
  • Chris Christie
  • Ted Cruz
  • John Kasich
  • Marco Rubio
  • Donald Trump.
https://twitter.com/FreeBeacon/status/696143040138842113

Iowa and New Hampshire could hardly be more different in the composition of their Republican voting population. For example, evangelicals make up a huge percentage of the Iowa GOP voters---well over half. Although there are some evangelicals in New Hampshire, it's a lot smaller group than in Iowa:
Four years ago, just 22% of the state’s primary voters described themselves as evangelicals, well below the 57% in Iowa and the lowest rate among swing states. A 2013 Gallup poll ranked New Hampshire as the second least religious state in the country, behind Vermont, based on churchgoing and the importance of religion in daily life. “Candidates definitely tone things down regarding social issues when they come to the state,” said Stephen Scaer, a 52-year-old special-education teacher who helps run a prayer vigil outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Manchester, N.H., and favors Republican Carly Fiorina. But, he said, “that’s simply pragmatic. If candidates want to win, they have to.”
The common wisdom on New Hampshire is that it's fiscally conservative and socially liberal; there are a lot of libertarians there, too ("Live Free or Die" is still alive in New Hampshire).

Thursday night, ABC announced the lineup for tomorrow's New Hampshire debate. Carly Fiorina was left off the roster. To put it politely -- Carly got royally screwed. For the first time this primary season there will be no undercard debate, leaving Fiorina and Gilmore the only candidates unable to participate in the network's pre-New Hampshire primary debate. Fiorina placed higher in the Iowa Caucus than two other approved debate contenders -- Governors Chris Christie and John Kasich. The debate also

Did you hear the latest? Yesterday in Trumpernoia: Fox News is out to get Donald Trump, after giving him so much airtime people previously had accused Fox News of being in the tank for Trump. Now, the fix it in for Marco Rubio. It's an Open Borders billionaire conspiracy. Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes' strings are being pulled by a Saudi Prince who was photographed with Megyn Kelly. The daughter of Fox News Executive VIP Bill Sammon works for Rubio. But it goes even deeper, really deep. Someone who used to work for Dana Perino now is Rubio's press secretary. It's just rumor for now, but Jasper may be in on the conspiracy, but he's not talking. And don't trust the vote count, it's being done by a Rubio donor. Today in Trumpernoia: Frank Luntz did consulting for Marco Rubio almost a decade ago to help shape Rubio's political image. But Luntz doesn't disclose that decade-old consulting when he talks about Rubio, so all the Luntz panels on Fox News are biased against Trump and favoring Rubio. The spark for this bias claim was this Luntz focus group after the last GOP debate, and Rubio's recent rise in the polls:

Marco Rubio may have received the third-most votes in Iowa this week, but he won big. The Iowa caucus was Monday.  Even as votes were being counted, news emerged confirming long-standing rumor that South Carolina Senator Tim Scott would endorse Rubio. Scott is the first African-American Senator from South Carolina since Reconstruction and his endorsement could swing the state.  According to the Washington Times:

Cybersecurity is going to be a challenging problem for the next president and every one thereafter but maybe Hillary Clinton isn't the best person to bring this up as a campaign issue. Alyssa Canobbio of the Washington Free Beacon:
Clinton Calls Cybersecurity ‘One of the Most Important Challenges’ for the Next President At the end of a get out the vote campaign event in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton was asked about her plans for protecting cyber security. “It is one of the most important challenges the next president is going to face,” Clinton said.

Jimmy Carter has joined with much of the Republican establishment in expressing preference for Donald Trump over Ted Cruz because Trump will make deals. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:
Turning to the “almost completely unpredictable” race for the Republican nomination, Carter said he had a “feeling” that Trump’s chances ultimately would “fade away. “When people actually get ready to put on a ballot, ‘This is the person I want to lead me for the next four or eight years, I think they’ll have a little different opinion,’” Carter said. Still, better him than Ted Cruz. If he had to choose between Cruz and Trump for the Republican nomination, Carter chuckled, “I think I would choose Trump, which may surprise some of you.”